AUGUST 7, 2015

From protecting sensitive customer data from cyber threats, to complying with data privacy laws, corporate information governance efforts are quickly becoming “must do” projects. While these projects often start with compliance teams, they also share many of the same drivers that spur initiatives within the legal department. Can legal teams leverage existing and emerging information governance projects for their own e-discovery needs? And if so, how can they produce measureable benefits from them?

While most corporations have bought into the concept of information governance, in practice it remains ethereal and abstract, with very little consistency from person to person in how it is defined. Because of this, there are often a lot of false starts within a corporation; committees are formed to study it and put a strategy in place, but projects fall short of implementation due to a lack of metrics. Despite this, there are practical steps corporations can take to show measurable progress in information governance. Many of these steps can be driven by the legal department, delivering immediate benefits to that group, and further benefits toward the greater information governance vision for the entire organization.